Yesterday we beat you over the head with the importance of having unique Meta Descriptions on every page of your jewelry website. Let's dig a little deeper into what they are really used for.
The Meta Description is not used for search engine optimization, but rather advertising. On all the SERPs from Google, Bing, and Blekko, you will always find a link to a website and a brief snippet below the link. Usually that snippet is the Meta Description, and most of the time you only see 160 characters.
Your Meta Description should not be stuffed with keywords. Here's a prime example of a badly stuffed Meta Description. Don't do this:
"Our Jewelry store proudly offers bridal jewelry, fine diamond jewelry, gold and platinum jewelry, loose diamonds, engagement rings, gemstone jewelry, custom jewelry design, Hearts on Fire diamond jewelry, Pandora jewelry, Diamond Marriage Symbol jewelry and more."
That's a real Meta Description we just copied from a random jewelry store's website. It's 263 characters, making it 103 characters too long. If your advertising agent wrote that sales copy, you should fire them.
Here's a good example of a well written Meta Description:
"H.Samuel the jeweller boasts a wide array of engagement rings, watches, earrings & more. For quality jewellery at affordable prices, visit our site today."
That's a real good example! It's 154 character long and it even has the call to action "visit our site today." The advertising agent who wrote that understood where it would be seen (on a SERP) and that you need to convince the users to click your link.
Here's another good one we found:
"Tommys Jewelry is one of the best online jewelry stores. A wide selection of fine quality gold, silver and diamond jewelry. Ordering is Easy and Secure."
That example is 152 characters long, and it contains fragmented sentences; but it works as an advertisement. It even conveys a feeling of trust with the "easy and secure" message.
On the same Google SERP, right below the Tommys listing we saw this horrible meta description:
"engagement rings, jewelry, diamond earrings, rings, sapphires, anniversary rings, necklace, jewelers, jewelry store, jeweler, white gold, platinum, yellow gold"
Which one would you rather click on?
In short, your Meta Description is a 160 character sales message with one goal--to get the click. You would never keyword stuff a newspaper ad, a billboard, or direct mail so don't keyword stuff your Meta Descriptions.
